Misery mounts for Myanmar’s marginalized Rohingya Muslims

ON April 21, the
BBC obtained disturbing video footage shot in Myanmar. It confirmed extreme
reports of what has been taking place in that country, even as it is being
touted by the US and European governments as a success story pertaining to
political reforms and democracy.

The BBC footage was
difficult to watch even when faces of Muslim Rohingya victims were blurred. To
say the least, the level of violence exhibited by their Arakan Buddhist
attackers was frightening. “The Burmese police (stood) by as shops, homes and
mosques are looted and burned, and failing to intervene as Buddhist mobs,
including monks, kill fleeing Muslims,” the BBC reported. A Rohingya man was
set ablaze while still alive. The police watched.

To some extent,
international media are finally noticing the plight of the Rohingyas who are
experiencing what can only be described as genocide. And there are reasons for
this. On one hand, the atrocities being carried out by the Burmese state, local
police and mobs belonging to nationalist Buddhist groups in the northwestern
Arakan State, are unambiguous attempts at removing all Rohingyas from Myanmar.
The Rohingya numbers currently hover between 800,000 and one million. On the
other hand, Myanmar has, as of late, been placed in the limelight for the wrong
reasons — thanks in part to Western governments breaking the political and
economic siege of the country’s decades-long military dictatorship.

While the “new
Burma” is being rebranded in a new positive discourse in order to open Yangon
up for foreign investments and steer it way from growing Chinese influence,
Western governments are deliberately ignoring the fact that a human rights
crisis of unprecedented proportions is taking place. This all is being done
with the active involvement and encouragement of the government.

In the eyes of many
in Myanmar, the Rohingyas are considered subhuman, and are treated as such.
Most Rohingya Muslims are native to the state of “Rohang” — also known as
Rakhine or Arakan. The majority of them live in very poor townships — mainly
Buthidaung and Maungdaw — in the northwestern part of Arakan, or live in
refugee camps. Their population subsists between the nightmare of having no
legal status (as they are still denied citizenship), little or no rights and
the ethnic purges carried out by their neighbors. The worst of such violence in
recent years took place between June and October 2012. However, the onslaught
targeting Rohingyas is resurfacing and spreading. This time around the
intensity and the parameters of violence grew to include other Muslim minority
groups in the country.

The BBC footage is
not only revealing in the sense that it confirmed the authorities’ complicity
in the violence, but it also reflected the government’s general attitude toward
this minority group, described by the UN as the “world’s most persecuted
people.” Responding to the outcry against his country’s brutal treatment of its
minorities, Myanmar’s President Then Sein made an “offer” to the UN last year
where he was willing to send the Rohingyas “to any other country willing to
accept them.”

This peculiar
behavior by the Burmese government is problematic in more than one way. Rangoon
doesn’t seem even slightly mindful of international humanitarian laws or simply
wishes to ignore it altogether. Its legal frame of reference is hardly a
reflection of a repented dictatorship. But what is even more dangerous is that
Rangoon has been sending unmistakable messages to nationalist groups who are
leading the ethnic purges, that their extremely violent behavior is in fact
consistent with the central policies of their governments.

Groups like Human
Rights Watch (HRW) have become markedly more outspoken regarding the violence
against the Rohingyas. To quell growing criticism, perhaps fearing a backlash
in terms of lucrative business contracts, the Burmese government decided to
investigate the ‘sectarian violence’ through a supposed independent commission.
Its recommendations were as equally disturbing as the violence itself.

The government
Inquiry Commission on the Sectarian Violence in Rakhine State, assembled last
August, was composed of 27-members, all Arkanese Buddhists, none of them from
the Rohingya minority. The long-awaited report on the violence finally emerged
on April 29,

2013. Its major
findings included concerns over “rapid population growth” among Rohingya and
Kaman Muslims. Its recommendations compelled a swift response from local
authorities that moved in to limit the birth rate of Muslim Rohingya in two
large townships.

On May 26, Arakan
State spokesperson Win Myaing told journalists that the findings of the
commission were consistent with the 2005 law that limits birth rate among
Roghingya Muslims to two children per family. That discriminatory law goes back
to 1994 where severe marriage restrictions were imposed on the Rohingya community,
requiring long and complicated procedures. The BBC said, “it is not clear how
(the ‘two-child policy’) will be enforced.”

Regardless of what
sort of mechanisms Burmese authorities plan to put in place to implement the
‘law’, limiting population growth of the Rohingya people, is an abhorrent
principle in and of itself. It even compelled celebrated “democracy icon” Aung
San Suu Kyi to break her silence regarding the violence against Rohingyas,
however, she carefully selected her language.

“It is not good to
have such discrimination. And it is not in line with human rights either,” Suu
Kyi told reporters, although “she could not confirm whether the policy was
being implemented,” reported the BBC online on May 27.

Considering the
level of violence directed at Rohingyas and the fact that more than 125,000
Rohingya have already been pushed into internally displaced camps, (tens of
thousands more have already been forced to flee the country and are scattered
in refugee camps throughout Southeast Asia) one can only imagine the kind of
sinister plans which are being put into action, amid the deafening
international silence.

In fact, “silence”
is an understatement, for following the early wave of devastating violence,
European officials welcomed the country’s ‘measured response’ and spokesperson
for the EU’s high representative on foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, said on
June 11: “We believe that the security forces are handling this difficult
inter-communal violence in an appropriate way.”

Meanwhile, western
countries led by the United States, are clamoring to divide the large Burmese
economic cake amongst themselves. As Rohingya boats were floating (or sinking)
in various waters, Myanmar’s President Sein met with Norway’s Prime Minister
Jens Stoltenberg in a “landmark” visit in Oslo on Feb. 26. Regarding the
conflict in Arakan, Jens Stoltenberg unambiguously declared it to be an internal
Burmese affair, reducing it to the most belittling statements. In regards to
‘disagreements’ over citizenship, he said, “we have encouraged dialogue, but we
will not demand that Myanmar’s government give citizenship to the Rohingyas.”
Moreover, to reward Sein for his supposedly bold democratic reforms, Norway
took the lead by waving off nearly half of its debt and other countries
followed suit, including Japan which dropped $3 billion last year.

Meanwhile, the
Rohingyas are left to ponder their punishment for flouting one discriminatory
law or another. “Fear of punishment under the two-child rule compel far too
many Rohingya women to risk their lives and turn to desperate and dangerous
measures to self-induce abortions,” Asia director at HRW, Brad Adams said in a
report published May 28.

No words can
suffice to describe the plight of the Rohingyas who are trying to survive an
unprecedentedly violent ethnic purge, with support and complicity of the
Burmese government and silence of the very western governments that never cease
to preach democracy and human rights.

Matthew Smith is a
researcher for HRW and author of the organization’s report, “All You Can Do is
Pray”: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in
Burma’s Arakan State.’ Concluding a commentary in CNN online, Smith wrote: “The
world should not be blinded by the excitement of Myanmar’s political opening.
Rohingya are paying for that approach with their lives.” Since then, more
Rohingyas were killed, many more homes, mosques, shops and orphanages were
burned to the ground and there has been no international uproar as of yet.